Soul Inspector

Georges Simenon pushed his characters to emotional extremes, exposing the criminal within, a shadowy core he believed we all share.

In 1927, Georges Simenon, the phenomenally prolific Belgian author of crime novels, helped engineer a publicity stunt that sounds like a forecast of reality TV: He sat in a glass booth and wrote a novel in a week, in full view of the public. Simenon was all but unknown then, a journeyman author of indifferent pulp novelettes under a variety of pseudonyms. The feat made him famous, became the first thing many people knew about him. It was certainly the first thing I ever knew about him—I heard the story from my father, who at the time of the performance was growing up a few miles from Simenon’s hometown of Liège. No one who witnessed the feat forgot it. Pierre Assouline, in his 1997 biography of Simenon, quotes from no fewer than four memoirs by acquaintances of the novelist, recalling the surging crowds, the writer’s concentration, how he did not once look up from his typewriter . . .

Simenon's Last Case BIOGRAPHY The Belgian writer Georges Simenon is well known for mystery novels, but nothing could have prepared his readers for the devastating personal tragedy in his 'Intimate Memoires,' which is now being published in the United States. Leslie Garis New York Times Magazine April 22, 1984

"Between novels I have three or four weeks of exuberant life, and then, little by little, I have a feeling of emptiness. That's why I have had 33 homes in my life. Each time, it's the same. One day, I look around and I say, 'Why am I here?' And I don't know the answer. I am a stranger."

Robert Crumb and Aline Kominsky

 This article is more than 20 years old

'He always laughs at my jokes and is my best fan'

This article is more than 20 years old

Eric: I'm a liberal American. Should I move to France?

Love, Eric

Aline Kominsky-Crumb: The quality of life is generally better here. People are less puritanical. But forget about getting things done quickly, and you'd better learn French.

Zoe Heller was born in England in 1965. Her most recent novel, What Was She Thinking, was shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 2003 and has now been adapted for the screen. (The film, starring Judi Dench and Cate Blanchett, is to be released in December 2006.) Her next novel, The Believers, will be published by Henry Holt in 2007.

Zoe Heller on a Joseph Roth Classic

JULY 13, 20062:45 PM ET

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Chris Lehmann

Call them buttonhole books, the ones you urge passionately on friends, colleagues and passersby. All readers have them -- and so do writers. This summer, NPR.org talks with authors about their favorite buttonhole books in the weekly series "You Must Read This."

Frank Miller

Comic book author Frank Miller talks about his work and the relationship between the new movie Batman Begins and his Batman: Year One series, on which the movie is loosely based.

Jonathan Ames is the author of the novels I Pass Like Night, The Extra Man, and Wake Up, Sir!, among other works. His most recent book is a collection of essays, I Love You More Than You Know. Mr. Ames performs frequently as a storyteller and comedian and has been a recurring guest on the Late Show with David Letterman.